A large photograph of Alexandra Svoboda is held up at a vigil outside of Rhode Island Hospital yesterday. Svoboda was injured in a scuffle with North Providence officers during a protest outside Jacky’s Galaxie restaurant in North Providence.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski Steve Szydlowski

NORTH PROVIDENCE — As the police stepped up their probe into whether officers used excessive force against a 22-year-old demonstrator whose leg was twisted and broken during Saturday’s protest against an Asian restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue, Deputy Police Chief Paul Marino and Mayor Charles Lombardi both reiterated yesterday they don’t believe local officers did anything wrong.

Alexandra Svoboda, of 139 Wood St. in Providence and originally from Lincoln, Neb., was in surgery yesterday for the second attempt to save her leg. Meanwhile, outside Rhode Island Hospital, fellow demonstrators from the Providence branch of the International Workers of the World gathered to express their support for their fallen colleague.

There are conflicting stories about how Svoboda — who has an aunt and uncle who were FBI agents — was injured.

Lombardi said that on what he’s been told he does not believe the injuries “were caused by the town of North Providence.” He said the young woman, who was wearing an upside-down bucket around her neck, may have suffered the broken leg after tripping and falling backward.

Mark Bray, a leader of IWW’s Providence chapter, said he was standing next to Svoboda on the lawn in front of Luca Music on Mineral Spring Avenue. He said the incident occurred at a moment when demonstrators, who he said numbered no more than 30, were trying to comply with the Police Department’s request to move from the middle of the road and onto the sidewalk as they continued their march toward Jacky’s Galaxie restaurant — the target of the protest.

“I saw an officer put his hands on her and grab her as he went forward into her,” he said. “She was playing drums on the bucket, and she recoiled.” The impact caused her to fall back down into the crowd, according to Bray, who says he then saw the police charge into the crowd after her. “I was right nearby. She was dazed from the initial encounter and then three cops converged on her. One took the task of kicking her legs from out from under her while they pushed her to the ground. It was a fall, but not a natural fall.

“I find it hard to believe that they could not have arrested her in a normal manner. I would hope the police would be trained well enough to simply arrest a young girl walking along the street without having to do this to her.”

He said he knows Svoboda and cannot believe the police assertions that she hit them with her drumsticks. “She is not a hothead that would do that. That sort of thing would be out of character for any of us.”

Bray, a candidate for two master’s degrees at Providence College in areas of European and American history, said the IWW was formed close to a century ago to help protect the rights of workers, though its Providence chapter experienced a revival during the last year.

The IWW is active in New York where it has been waging a campaign to organize employees of HWH Trading, also known as Dragon Land Trading, a firm that supplies food for scores of Asian and Latino restaurants from Maine to southern New Jersey. Billy Randel, who heads the union’s efforts in the food services industry, said HWH operates shops in the New York area where employees work very long hours for little pay.

Bray said members here were recently tipped off by two former HWH employees about restaurants in Rhode Island that HWH does business with. The biggest of those was Jacky’s Galaxie, with locations in North Providence, Bristol, Cumberland, West Warwick and Johnston.

“They [the workers in New York] wanted us to let the customers up here know what Dragon Land was doing and about Jacky’s Galaxie’s complicity with it by purchasing supplies from Dragon Land, and that he should purchase from a responsible supplier that respects labor law.”

According to Randel, the owner of Jacky’s Galaxie, Kin Wah “Jacky” Ko, tried to have the protest called off by assuring the union that he had changed suppliers. But the group demanded proof.

“The more we talked, they [the people at the restaurant] became more hostile and topped it off by going to court to seek a restraining order against us holding any more protests, which leads me to think they do not intend to respect workers’ rights.”

Yesterday, Deputy Chief Marino and Mayor Lombardi said that the police received permission from the state Department of Transportation to review the surveillance videos of the intersection of Mineral Spring and Douglas avenues, where the protesters gathered Saturday to begin their half-mile march toward the restaurant, and are looking for any businesses that may also have tapes of the march.

Marino said the tapes could help to determine how many marchers there were. Police reports suggest that at least at the onset of the march there were about 100 demonstrators, though the numbers may have diminished after the confrontations with the police.

Lombardi, Marino and other officials listened to audio tapes of the police communications during the protest, which they say became increasingly urgent because protesters were not heeding their requests to walk on the sidewalk instead of the road.

Lombardi said he only wishes that the protesters had extended the same courtesy to the police that they had extended to the news media by telling them what was about to take place.

“If they had told us what they were going to do, we could have prepared and could have given them an escort,” the mayor said. “Instead they chose to tie up the second busiest roadway in Rhode Island, backing cars up in both directions from Centredale to Pawtucket. I can assure you they did not make any friends from the people who had to use that road that afternoon.”

“We could have worked along with them. Everyone has the right to protest. They have a right to protest peacefully.”

Yesterday, Svoboda’s parents, Jan Enstrom and Scott Svoboda, of Nebraska, said they have gone with little sleep since getting the phone call early Sunday about what had happened to their daughter’s leg.

Svoboda’s father said he questions the attitude of the police. “These were 35 kids armed with nothing more than cell phones. My daughter is not one to resist a police officer.”

“She is a most peaceful loving person with a large heart,” said her mother, adding that she was not surprised that her daughter would have gotten involved in a demonstration to support workers’ rights. “That’s the kind of person she is. When she sees a wrong, she tries to right it.”

The parents said their daughter came up to Rhode Island three years ago to visit a friend, and liked it so much she decided to stay, taking classes at the Community College of Rhode Island.

When the police arrested Svoboda on Saturday, they charged her with three counts of felony assault on police officers, a count of resisting legal arrest and disorderly conduct. Marino said yesterday that because none of the police officers were seriously injured, the felonies were being reduced to misdemeanors. Jason Friedmutter, 23, also of 139 Wood St., Providence, had been arrested the same day on a charge of obstructing an officer and was released on $1,000 personal recognizance.

Svoboda’s parents said yesterday’s surgery tried to increase the flow of blood into her leg, to make sure it can be used in the future. Her fractured leg is being held by an external brace with pins through her skin and bones. There has been no discussion as yet about the orthopedic surgery that may be required.

“She is in a lot of pain,” her father said.

Staff writer Gina Macris contributed to this report.

rdujardi@projo.com